Yes! I've noticed that other midwesterners consider their home state are a core part of their identity (meet someone from Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, etc and they'll make it very clear), but there's no sense of Illinois Pride. Probably because Chicago and its culture dominates everything, and the people outside the metro area feel alienated a bit.
I took a trip downstate this summer and found that Ski pop (or soda) is a big deal down there. It's a citrusy, more flavorful Mountain Dew. Very tasty!
How far downstate did you get? I assume you had to get at least as far as Vandalia.
I could very easily provide one or more full writeups about SKI, about which someone once remarked that it "tastes like caffeinated lemon juice", and Cherry SKI - invented in Breese! - about which someone once remarked that it "tastes like battery acid". These and yours and many other statements are of course all true.
Imagine if all 102 artworks could assemble together. Kinda like Devastator, Superion, Bruticus, or Computron. Although those were usually five Transformers combining into one. Here we are talking about 102 combining into one. Which, come to think of it. Why aren't there any combiners with 102 Transformers? Illinoisitron can be the first one!
I would totally want to visit all 102 artworks. Or at the very least if I'm in a particular county for the first time, I'll go visit their artwork.
I was thinking about why Illinoisians don't visit other areas of the state as much. Initially I though that the state is just too big. I don't want to make a trip all the way downstate. But certainly we are not the largest state, but we are up there, right? <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_area">Wikipedia lists all the states by size</a>. To my shock, Illinois is smack in the middle at #25.
Right this minute, it is a 5:18 drive from my house to Cairo. But it is only 4:10 to Detroit. It is only 5:16 to Cleveland!
Chicago is essentially the capital of the Midwest, and downstate Illinois is essentially no different than any other part of the Midwest in this thinking. I think that's the way to look at it.
I was wondering about that. Illinois' biggest city is in the a corner of the state.
• 12.67 million people in Illinois.
• 9.4 million people in Chicagoland area
So 74% of the state is in one corner of the state.
I'd like to see how many other states have over 70% of their residents in one urban area. If there are other states that fit that criteria, how many of them have the urban area stuck in the corner of the state. How would we define a corner of the state? Let's go with what percentage of the state is more than a 3-hour drive from the urban area? (for Chicago, that would be anything beyond Galesburg, Springfield, Effingham)
I think to find another state with a similar profile, you pretty much must be talking about a state with a single extremely dense outsized urban center. The three largest states (California, Texas, Florida) have several urban centers each, and you'll find the same thing in most of other large states (Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina). You could theoretically find a smaller state like this (Vermont? Delaware?), but if it's a very small state geographically, that's not the same thing at all. Other states with dominating urban centers have those urban centers more centrally located (Georgia, Colorado).
The most obvious comparison to Illinois is going to be New York, where the whole thing is amplified by the urban center having the same name as the state.
The three others which I see as possibilities are all out west: Oregon, Washington, Nevada.
I just crunched the numbers for Illinois. I never thought of Illinois as a state of counties, but for this purpose, it helps us figure out the percentage of the state that is 3 hours away. To get some real stats, let's look at how many counties are more than three hours away.
60 of Illinois' 102 counties are more than 3 hours from 1 N State Street, Chicago, IL. That means 59% of the state is more than three hours from Chicago.
Now let's look at the states you suggested Oregon, Washington, Nevada.
Portland, Oregon
Oh man. Their counties get much larger in size, the further you move away from Portland. This method won't work for them.
Seattle, Washington
20 of 39 counties are 3 hours from Seattle. 51.2%
Las Vegas, Nevada
Only 17 counties. 15 are 3 hours from Las Vegas. 88.2%
Yes! I've noticed that other midwesterners consider their home state are a core part of their identity (meet someone from Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, etc and they'll make it very clear), but there's no sense of Illinois Pride. Probably because Chicago and its culture dominates everything, and the people outside the metro area feel alienated a bit.
I took a trip downstate this summer and found that Ski pop (or soda) is a big deal down there. It's a citrusy, more flavorful Mountain Dew. Very tasty!
How far downstate did you get? I assume you had to get at least as far as Vandalia.
I could very easily provide one or more full writeups about SKI, about which someone once remarked that it "tastes like caffeinated lemon juice", and Cherry SKI - invented in Breese! - about which someone once remarked that it "tastes like battery acid". These and yours and many other statements are of course all true.
Greenville! A few towns away from Vandalia. They even have Ski in their fountain drink machines down there.
The 102 artworks in 102 counties is a brilliant idea!
Imagine if all 102 artworks could assemble together. Kinda like Devastator, Superion, Bruticus, or Computron. Although those were usually five Transformers combining into one. Here we are talking about 102 combining into one. Which, come to think of it. Why aren't there any combiners with 102 Transformers? Illinoisitron can be the first one!
I would totally want to visit all 102 artworks. Or at the very least if I'm in a particular county for the first time, I'll go visit their artwork.
I was thinking about why Illinoisians don't visit other areas of the state as much. Initially I though that the state is just too big. I don't want to make a trip all the way downstate. But certainly we are not the largest state, but we are up there, right? <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_area">Wikipedia lists all the states by size</a>. To my shock, Illinois is smack in the middle at #25.
Right this minute, it is a 5:18 drive from my house to Cairo. But it is only 4:10 to Detroit. It is only 5:16 to Cleveland!
Chicago is essentially the capital of the Midwest, and downstate Illinois is essentially no different than any other part of the Midwest in this thinking. I think that's the way to look at it.
I was wondering about that. Illinois' biggest city is in the a corner of the state.
• 12.67 million people in Illinois.
• 9.4 million people in Chicagoland area
So 74% of the state is in one corner of the state.
I'd like to see how many other states have over 70% of their residents in one urban area. If there are other states that fit that criteria, how many of them have the urban area stuck in the corner of the state. How would we define a corner of the state? Let's go with what percentage of the state is more than a 3-hour drive from the urban area? (for Chicago, that would be anything beyond Galesburg, Springfield, Effingham)
I think to find another state with a similar profile, you pretty much must be talking about a state with a single extremely dense outsized urban center. The three largest states (California, Texas, Florida) have several urban centers each, and you'll find the same thing in most of other large states (Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina). You could theoretically find a smaller state like this (Vermont? Delaware?), but if it's a very small state geographically, that's not the same thing at all. Other states with dominating urban centers have those urban centers more centrally located (Georgia, Colorado).
The most obvious comparison to Illinois is going to be New York, where the whole thing is amplified by the urban center having the same name as the state.
The three others which I see as possibilities are all out west: Oregon, Washington, Nevada.
I just crunched the numbers for Illinois. I never thought of Illinois as a state of counties, but for this purpose, it helps us figure out the percentage of the state that is 3 hours away. To get some real stats, let's look at how many counties are more than three hours away.
60 of Illinois' 102 counties are more than 3 hours from 1 N State Street, Chicago, IL. That means 59% of the state is more than three hours from Chicago.
Now let's look at the states you suggested Oregon, Washington, Nevada.
Portland, Oregon
Oh man. Their counties get much larger in size, the further you move away from Portland. This method won't work for them.
Seattle, Washington
20 of 39 counties are 3 hours from Seattle. 51.2%
Las Vegas, Nevada
Only 17 counties. 15 are 3 hours from Las Vegas. 88.2%
That was a great read.